172 
February 1, 1910 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Farm Mechanics 
Making a Septic Tank 
In The R. N.-Y. of July 27, 101S, page 
919. I read the query: “Can you tell any¬ 
thing about septic tanks, how to build 
them, and do they always work properly?” 
No one in the country is more interest¬ 
ed in them than I. The tank illustrated 
in the accompanying picture will do what 
is needed. This cesspool will co6t about 
$5 if the farmer can build it himself, and 
will require one load of farm stones, not 
too large; one load of gravel, not too 
coarse, and five sacks of cement. This 
builds a cesspool 6x3x3 ft., and large 
enough for a family of five or six persons. 
The cover should be tight, a slab of stone 
or of cement reinforced with seven to nine 
inches of soil on top, and should not have 
any ventilating pipe, as the bacteria that 
work in it are the kind that work without 
air only. 
This tank is in effect a settling tank 
and can be built of any size, shape or 
material, so long as it is large enough to 
hold one day’s sewage of the family, and 
so long as the sewage comes in so slowly 
to use on the same plan. On the Scranton 
watershed there is a system of tanks like 
this in use. This tank works. It will not 
fill up. It will not freeze, although it is 
so near the surface of the ground, because 
the action of the bacteria gives off heat. 
Washday has no effect on this tank, not 
any at all. It takes care of the kitchen 
sink, the washtub, the bath, and all. It 
does away with all outside cesspools, out¬ 
side closets; in fact, of all such objec¬ 
tionable conditions that are a menace to 
health for all time. e. j. c. ei.exer. 
Pennsylvania. 
Relation of Pulley and Belt 
I noticed in the recent articles on farm 
power the recommendation that the en¬ 
gine pulley should be wider than the belt. 
Do you think this is necessary where the 
engine and machine are well lined up and 
kept so, as in the case of a sawmill? 
Jeffrey, N. H. b. s. 
The service rendered by a belt depends 
to no little extent upon the diameter, 
width and kind of pulleys over which it 
is run. Generally speaking, the larger 
Sectional View of Sc/ilic Tank 
that the solids have time to settle to the 
bottom of the tank, and will do all that is 
expected of it. The tank ehould be con¬ 
nected to the house with a four-inch tile 
drain, every joint cemented and rubbed 
smooth on the inside. This should be not 
less than 10 feet long, meaning from the 
house to the tank, and should have a tilt 
of one-half inch per foot. It enters half 
way up the .side of the tank. The outlet 
is to be a little higher, and should be of 
four-inch tile laid with open joints, so 
frfae clear water that passes out can pass 
into the soil at each point. 
This drain should be from 15 to 20 feet 
long, and laid on a tilt of one-fourth of 
an inch to the foot. The end of this drain 
may also terminate in a hole dug a few 
feet deep and filled in with crushed stone 
or gravel. The slanting elbow, on the in¬ 
side of the tank, connected with the out¬ 
let. is to keep the scum that forms in the 
tank, as in the scum a form of bacteria is 
working to purify the sewage. 
The only solid left in this tank is the 
mineral part; this amounts to very little 
in a year. It will not freeze so long as 
the house is occupied. There are two rea¬ 
sons for this, first, the character of the 
water entering the tank, and second, be¬ 
cause bacteria in working produce heat. 
The sewage should not stand in the tank. 
If the expected flow is cut down, dilute it 
with water. The water flowing from the 
outlet is a clear liquid, and is harmless. 
Scientists have proven by experiments 
that sewage will become purified and ren¬ 
dered entirely harmless if allowed to re¬ 
main in a tank where a sort of “friendly 
bacteria” eat up or destroy all poisonous 
matter. 
A tank constructed along these linos 
will cost very little and the question of 
sewage disposal is effectually settled for 
all time. Any plumber or anybody handy 
with tools will understand how to put in 
the necessary “traps” in order to prevent 
poisonous gases from entering the resi¬ 
dences from the sewer pipes or from the 
septic tank. Any good physician will 
strongly advise the l?est obtainable, and 
he will tell you that more disease is 
caused by bad water, bad sanitation, out¬ 
side closets and cesspools than from any 
other source. The saving in doctor’s bills 
alone will pay a very good return on the 
amount invested in a sane and sanitary 
system of this kind. 
If you put ventilation in, the anaerobic 
bacteria would not work. They are germs 
that work without air, only, and change 
the solids into this clear liquid which 
passes away through the outlet. It can 
be made large enough for a whole village 
the pulleys can be the better for the belt, 
as flexing and bending is not so acute, 
and so great a tension is not necessary 
to prevent slipping because of the greater 
surface in contact with the pulley, and 
the higher belt speed caused by the 
greater pulley circumference. Increase 
in pulley diameter is limited, though, by 
at least two factors, the high cost as the 
diameter increases and the increasing belt 
speed. The velocity of the belt should 
not be greater than about 4.500 feet per 
minute. The pulley face too should in 
all cases have a width somewhat greater 
than that of the belt used with it, and 
should in addition be slightly crowned or 
larger in the center, so that the belt will 
run to the center and keep away from 
the edge, as nothing will ruin a belt 
much quicker than crimping over the 
edge of a pulley that is too narrow for 
it or is out of line. Even a flanged pul¬ 
ley should be wider so that the belt will 
run in the middle and avoid wear on the 
flanges. 
Carl G Barth in the American 
Machinist of February 11, 1915, gives the 
formula appearing below in which P 
represents the width of the pulley face 
in inches, and B the width of the belt, 
as a means of finding the proper width 
pulley for a given belt. Formula—P = 
1 3/10B plus %, that is, the width of 
the belt is multiplied by 1 3/16 and % 
of an inch added to the product to obtain 
the proper pulley width. This would 
mean that a 9% or 10-in. pulley would 
be used with an 8-in. belt. This formula 
is designed for machine-shop practice and 
of course would not be used in the rough 
and tumble engineering practice of the 
farm. It is simply given here to show 
the importance attached to proper pulley 
widths by big belt users. A second Barth 
formula uses slightly smaller factors, but 
the one given is the preferred one. The 
point is to secure pulleys that are wider 
than the belt and slightly crowned, so 
that the belt runs to the middle and is 
kept from crimping over the edge, which 
is ruinous. R. H. S. 
A Tartar for Leaks 
If tar will keep water out of a boat, 
why will it not keep it in a pail? Metal 
containers are expensive, and of such thin 
material that they soon give out, as the 
Irishman remarked, “as was the intin- 
tiou,” perhaps, of the makers. Certainly 
nowadays none of them can be said to 
outlive their usefulness. By the use of an 
artificial tar or cement, not the thin pine 
tar of the South, the thing can be done, 
and the life of a sieve-like pail of wood 
or metal be prolonged indefinitely, espe¬ 
cially for all cold weather uses about the 
farm buildings. 
A pound or eo or rosin is pounded 
rather fine, mixed with say one-quarter 
its weight of grease, and slowly melted 
in pot or skillet, with frequent stirring, 
until it becomes a smooth and sticky 
mass. A piece of strong cotton cloth is 
fitted to the bottom of the pail, coming- 
up around the edges, and pressed into the 
tar, which has been liberally daubed over 
the bottom, while pail is hot. More 
than one thickness may be used, or 
patches of any size or shape put on and 
doubled, if desired. If the tar is not too 
-thick, so as to he brittle, these repairs 
endure frost well, and only yield to Sum¬ 
mer heat, and then not so readily if the 
container is kept right side up. Other¬ 
wise the tar will flow like water. In any 
event, these pails can be used many 
months in the year, and where solder is 
not to be had, or the article too far gone 
for its use. G. S. P. 
Maine. 
Converting Well Into Cistern 
I would like some advice in regard to 
converting an old dug well into a cistern. 
The well is 22 feet deep, walled with reg¬ 
ular 24-in. well tile, and seldom has more 
than two or three feet of water in it: it 
goes dry in Summer. My idea was to ce¬ 
ment. the bottom and lead the joints if it 
would be possible. As I do not know how 
to go about it, especially the joints, I 
would appreciate suggestions from anyone 
who has had experience with anything of 
this kind. J. A. E. 
Berlin Center, O. 
If the joints between these tiles are 
tight, I would suggest cementing the bot¬ 
tom of the well with concrete and trying 
it as a cistern iu the hope that the dirt 
packed about the outside of the tiles 
would seal the joints sufficiently to hold 
water. If they do not prove to be .suffi¬ 
ciently watertight, they can be sealed 
later. If the surrounding soil is clay, I 
should expect to find the joints between 
the tiles pretty well sealed by it; if not, 
they may have to he closed by packing or 
by an outside shell of concrete, though the 
latter would involve considerable labor iu 
excavating. M. B. D. 
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